The Man Who Sold Air in the Holy Land: Stories by Omer FriedlanderMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
March is the month of Purim, and The Man Who Sold Air in the Holy Land, winner of the 2022 AJL Jewish Fiction Award and the debut short story collection by 27-year-old Israeli author Omer Friedlander, seems like an appropriate book to focus on since, while it is as earthbound as the orange groves, refugee camps, and cities in which its stories are set, it is also imbued with the love of folktales and fairy tales Friedlander says he inherited from his father. Also like the story of Esther, while his stories have their tender and whimsical moments, they are haunted by the shadow of tragedy, as reminders of Israel’s history and current situation make frequent appearances.
Many of Friedlander’s characters are outsiders or outcasts, coming into contact with, and as often separating from, those who are their opposites. The Jewish girl and the Bedouin boy she falls in love with in “The Sand Collector,” the activist mother whose son was killed in the war she opposed, and the two girls in the last story, “The Miniaturist,” whose families’ professional rivalry dates back to before the expulsion from Spain, are some of these. At other times, like the title character, a feckless con man who sells his “bottles of air” to tourists with the help of his daughter and her one-eyed cat, Moshe Dayan, they stand in opposition to the “normal” world, but all are portrayed as richly individual characters in beautiful and evocative language.
Originally published in the March 2023 edition of Chai Notes, the newsletter of Congregation Shir Shalom in Buffalo, NY.
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